A nearly four hour stand-off in Lee’s Summit ended peacefully, but a subject involved in a domestic dispute eluded police and is still wanted for questioning.

Beth Glover, a spokeswoman for the Lee’s Summit Police Department, said officers received a call around 5:30 a.m. July 8 in regards to a domestic disturbance in the 400 block of N.E. Westwind Drive, just east of the intersection of Missouri 291 and N.E. Langsford Rd. near Hy-Vee East.

Glover said a woman involved in the dispute was immediately out of harm’s way after officers arrived, but the man it was believed returned to a duplex on Westwind. The department’s emergency services squad was called to the scene after officers couldn’t determine if the man was in the duplex, Glover said, which is normal police procedure in cases involving possible barricades. Negotiators tried to make contact but to no avail.

After nearly four hours of unsuccessful contact with the man, officers stormed the dwelling around 9:30 a.m. only to discover the man was not inside.

“One of the things we like to do first is if we can resolved it peacefully without having officers go in; that’s our number one priority,” Glover said. “We couldn’t reach (the subject) so we ended up sending our troops in and the guy wasn’t there.”

Glover said police officials know the identity of the man and want to question him about his role in the domestic dispute. She added the couple have a prior romantic relationship and have a history of domestic disputes.

The department set up a temporary command post in the parking lot of Hy-Vee East, had their Bomb Squad on the scene and called in re-enforcement from the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department’s tactical team.

“We had a few guys out of the office today and we wanted to make sure that we were fully staffed with plenty of people,” Glover said. “The goal is to resolve these types of situations as quickly as possible, but also we want to make sure we do it peacefully without anyone getting hurt.”

Join The Conversation

Lee's Summit Journal is pleased to provide this opportunity to share
information, experiences and observations about what's in the news.
Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the
newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day,
and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal
comments and remarks that are off point. Thank you for taking the time
to offer your thoughts.